


Painful Questions

by PrettyPettyPastel, SugarsnapCaely



Series: Short Stories [11]
Category: The Glass Scientists (Webcomic), Video Blogging RPF, jacksepticeye egos - Fandom
Genre: Anxiety, Bonding, Crossover, Gen, My poor boy is too polite for this shit, Nervousness, Portals, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Scars, he's been through enough, please leave my boy alone
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-12
Updated: 2019-12-12
Packaged: 2021-02-25 22:42:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,474
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21763180
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PrettyPettyPastel/pseuds/PrettyPettyPastel, https://archiveofourown.org/users/SugarsnapCaely/pseuds/SugarsnapCaely
Summary: Jameson Jackson pops by The Society for his first visit. He meets the Lodgers, but quickly finds himself lost in the sea of scientific questions. And at just the wrong time...
Series: Short Stories [11]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1559371
Kudos: 3





	Painful Questions

**Author's Note:**

> Sort of contains spoilers for From All Sides, as well as my writing universe in general.

James opened the door to Marvin’s workroom. Strangely, Marvin was not with him due to being out on a small tour for a few weeks. Regardless, he peered around the room, finally able to see the corner that usually occupied the show supplies.

He closed the door with a soft click and walked over to the brewing station. He scanned the labels that were written on various vials, flasks, and beakers. “ _Disguise,” “Healing,” “Wraith Weakener.”_ Aha, there it was! James pulled out a flask labeled, “ _The Society_.”

He walked over to the table and grabbed a bowl filled with glowing rocks of some sort. Although James was not an alchemist nor a magician, he was thankful that he remembered Marvin’s instructions on how to open the portal.

Carefully, he pulled off the cork on the flask, and with a steady hand, poured a drop over the rocks. They glowed for a moment before a green smoke started to swirl. It spun out of the bowl and to an open space in the room. It grew into an oval shape, gradually showing an image on the other side, almost like a window.

James smiled, proud that he was actually able to do this on his own. With confident strides, he passed through the swirling, green portal.

A large, oval portal opened up in the lobby, a loud rip sounding out in the room. This managed to capture the attention of several lodgers, all of them looking through the portal and seeing James. One of them held out her hand to help James through, smiling. "Hello, there!" 

He beamed back and waved his free hand, thankful that someone helped him through. The only issue was that he didn’t recognize them.

James knew that Marvin had been to the society before, but this was his first time going there himself.

"Oh! Yes, I'm Miss Lavender! Welcome to The Society! You must be one of Marvin's brothers, correct?" The portal closed behind James, causing her to look behind him.

He nodded his head. He looked around the large lobby, noticing the many lights and strange objects in glass cases. He remembered Marvin’s excitement in describing them but seeing them for himself was a wonder to behold.

Looking back down at Miss Lavendar, he stood there awkwardly. He had to communicate with her in some way, and he knew for a fact that he wouldn’t be able to use sign language.

Taking a deep breath, a large speech bubble formed above his head. “ **Yes, my name is Jameson Jackson!** ”

Miss Lavender gasped, staring at the speech bubble. "Goodness! How did you do that!?" This gathered a small crowd, the sound of muttering and gossiping filling the room.

He had a feeling he would get a reaction like this, but it was the only way he could talk to them. “ **Well...I umm…** ” He wasn’t really sure how to explain it, to be honest, but at least he could try. “ **I’m not really sure, but I have this pocket watch.** ” 

He gave Estelle the signal to stay inside the watch before pulling it out of his vest pocket. Knowing how shy she was, it wouldn’t be good to meet so many strangers. 

He held the golden trinket in the palm of his hand.

A woman in a green dress and hat rushed forward, looking at the watch. "And this is connected to your abilities?" She leaned in closely, inspecting the watch.

"Don't mind her, Mr. Jackson, she just gets excited about clockwork. This is Miss Flowers, our entomologic Intelligencer!" She gestured to the woman in green, who realized what she was doing and backed up, blushing. "Uh, hello!" 

He smiled, relaxing his grip on the watch. “ **It’s swell meeting you!** **So, you work with gears?** **That’s neat, but I suppose this is where my abilities come from.** ” He rubbed the back of his neck. “ **It’s a tad complicated.** ”

"O-oh, I'm not the only one who works with gears here, Mr. Archer is a botanical clockwork engineer, I specialize in clockwork animals!" She looked up, hearing footsteps and seeing said man enter the lobby. "Well, speak of the devil!"

"I heard we have a new visitor?"

"Yes! This is Jameson Jackson, he's Marvin's brother! Show him what you can do!" Miss Lavender was bouncing on the balls of her feet, excited about this strange new individual.

James shook his hand. “ **You’re Mr. Archer then? This probably looks really strange…** ” He couldn’t help but feel a surge of joy. He was honestly just glad that people weren’t creeped out by it. They were actually excited about it!

"Fascinating..." He poked the speech bubble, surprised to find that the bubble was solid.

Miss Flowers grabbed Archer's shoulder, grinning madly. "I know, right!? And he said all of his abilities come from that little pocket watch he has!" She pointed to the golden trinket, watching Archer light up.

The crowd gained a few more people as they began to encircle James, talking and whispering.

He was reminded of when he used to dance for small crowds as a child. People watching with fascination and delight at something he could do. It only made his smile grow.

“ **It’s a bit more than that, really...but umm...I’m not sure if I should say. Besides, speech bubbles aren’t the only thing this watch allows me to do!** ”

He reached behind his back and pulled out his notebook, followed by a pen. He proceeded to turn in a circle, demonstrating that there was nothing behind him.

Gasps and cheers came from the crowd, words of encouragement to show more filling the air as the crowd continued to grow. At this point, it was practically impossible to escape the bombardment of questions.

"How long have you had these abilities?"

"Is there anything else you can do?"

"How many items can you hold in your pocket dimension?"

James was having a difficult time keeping up with the flood of inquiries. At least when he danced, people weren’t trying to ask him a bunch of questions. He could do this though. How bad could it get?

“ **Well...umm I’ve had them for about 2 years now.** **I can make hands pop up and do things, only a few at a time though. I actually haven’t tested the limit of my hammerspace…** ”

"Hammerspace?"

"How creative!"

"Hands? _Organic_ hands?"

"How does that even work?"

"Let's run some tests!"

At this point, practically everyone in the building was surrounding James, talking and asking questions and over all harassing him.

James’ eyes darted about as he continued to answer their questions. This went on for a while, and gradually, he began to fidget. He tried side-stepping away from the crowd, putting his hands up to try and get them to stop. What he did not anticipate was the next slew of questions.

The crowd gasped, looking at Jameson's hand.

"Is that a scar?"

"It looks like a burn mark!"

"Rather big, too!"

"How'd you get that?"

"Are you alright?"

He snapped his head to the person who asked that last question, biting his lip and fidgeting some more. In a state of panic, he plastered a smile on his face. “ **I’m...I’m alright…** ” He didn’t want them to get upset. They were only questions after all. But...they were starting to get...personal…

"Well, if you're sure..."

"We've still got no answer! How'd you get that?"

"Was it an accident?"

"A curse, perhaps?"

"Does it still hurt?"

The crowd gathered in closer, attempting to get a better look at the burn mark on Jameson's hand.

At this rate, he wasn’t sure how much time had passed. It felt like forever, yet at the same time, everything felt like it was rushing past him. He tried to back away from the crowd, still attempting to keep that polite smile on his face. 

Miss Flowers reached out her hand, touching Jameson's shoulder. "Hon, are you _sure_ you're okay? You're not looking too hot…"

James flinched and tried to swallow the hiss that threatened to spill out of his mouth. He nodded in her direction. He was ok, he was ok, he was ok.

He tried to distract himself by answering questions. “ **I...I ummm...** ” He realized that he really _couldn’t_ answer any of them. Correction, he wasn’t comfortable answering them.

It was ok. All he had to do was hold it out until he found Jekyll. That wouldn’t be too long, right?

* * *

Hyde stumbled out of the nearby bar, only slightly drunk this time, and began to head home. Jekyll said he had a bad feeling, and he demanded that Hyde leave immediately, so he dropped a few coins on the counter and left.

He didn't know why he decided to listen to Jekyll, or why he had the same bad feeling, but he trusted his gut when it told him something was wrong. Luckily for him, he was only 10 minutes away as he hadn't gone all the way to the East end that night.

_Remember, if the society is being attacked, I can—_

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know! Shut yer yap, will ya?" Hyde rolled his eyes, glaring at the shadowy Jekyll following his footsteps.

Jekyll sighed, crossing his arms. _I'm just scared, I've only had this bad of a feeling when Moreau stared right at me in the police station._

"That was kinda weird, wasnit?" He thought back on that moment, the anger in Moreau's eyes for someone he had technically never met. "I'm sure it's fine!"

* * *

It was not fine. It most surely was not fine.

James no longer felt like he was entertaining a crowd like he used to in his youth. No, now he felt like he was in a cage. He felt like he was drowning in curious questions and hypotheses. It was an endless wave that he no longer had the ability to control. Why had he said he was fine?

His hands shook and his feet scuffed at the ground. His shoulders kept moving periodically, trying to get the tension out of his body, specifically on his shoulder blades. He couldn’t keep track of time anymore, but he knew it had to be late because the pain had morphed from dull to sharp. It was like tiny needles in his back. 

The corners of his mouth twitched as he tried to keep that damn smile on his face. Additionally, his speech bubbles had a visible wobble to them which had unfortunately only caused them to throw more questions in his vicinity.

There was a part of him that desperately wanted to curl up in a ball on the floor... 

The doors to the Society creaked, revealing Edward Hyde in all his drunken glory. "Oi! What's goin' on here?"

The crowd turned towards Hyde before Mr. Bird spoke up. "Oh, we were just asking this fellow a few questions!"

The crowd parted slightly, showing Hyde the scared and shaking form of Jameson. His jaw dropped, seeing the terror on James' face. This shock only lasted for a moment before it melted into pure fury. "All of you, give the poor man some space! Dear God, just lookit him! The man's got anxiety!" He strode forwards, giving James a reassuring smile before turning back to the crowd.

"Go on now, shoo! Show's over! Get!" He waved the crowd away, putting his hands on his hips as they all left. "Sorry 'bout them, they get very excited 'bout newcomers. Whaddya need?"

James’ smile returned but only slightly. “ **Th-thank you, Edward. I don’t know what would have happened without you.** ” The fidgeting did not stop.

"No problem, 's what I'm here for! But ya didn't answer my question, why'd ya come to visit? Y'must've had a reason." He gestured for James to follow him as he walked towards the kitchen, knowing that by now Rachel was up on the roof with Jasper.

He wrung his hands together, biting his lip as he followed Hyde. “ **I...well you see...Marvin...Marvin’s…** ” He fidgeted some more, trying to get the leftover nerves out of his body. “ **You see, Marvin’s on a tour for a few shows at the moment, and well...I umm…** ”

Goodness, sometimes he frustrated himself with how difficult it was to spit his words out at times! “ **I-I ran out of the painkiller...f-for my scar…** ”

He put up his hands, waving them. “ **B-but if it’s too much trouble I can always come back later!** ”

"Is that it?" He grabbed a cookie, handing James one as well. "'s no problem! I'll make ya an extra-large batch, that way this doesn't happen again any time soon." He walked out of the kitchen, beginning to head towards Jekyll's office.

James closed his eyes, giving a sigh. “ **Thank you.** ” He followed Hyde out of the kitchen, biting into the cookie on his way out. “ **What time is it anyway?** ”

Hyde looked over at the grandfather clock on the wall as he went up the stairs, unlocking the office door. "About midnight." He threw open the doors to the office, turning on a light. "Better get some painkiller made, and fast, eh?" He quickly went to work, attempting to make small talk. "So, long time no see, how're the others doin’?" 

James looked around the office, seeing all the glass bottles and glass cabinets. They glowed with colored liquids, giving the room the appearance of stained glass. It made him smile.

He sat down in a nearby chair, leaning forward as not to brush his shoulder blades on the back. “ **The others are doing swell! Chase got to spend a full week with his kids! He was absolutely ecstatic! As I already mentioned, Marvin’s on a small tour.**

“ **Jack’s channel has been going well. The charity streams are doing fantastic.**

“ **Jackie’s the same as always, same with Henrik.**

“ **Estelle’s been doing great. I’m glad I let her know to stay in the watch. That was scary back there, even for me.”** He shook his head, smiling. **“I don’t understand how you and Jekyll do this.** ”

Hyde laughed, handing him a vial of clear liquid. "It's a circus act, I can tell ya that much." He continued to work, making at least 4 dozen more vials and setting them in a suitcase. "We'll be sure to visit more often, and next time, let us know beforehand when you're running low." He handed James the suitcase, giving him a hug. "Tell Marvin that when he gets back, we need to talk about more training!" He opened the portal, helping James back through.

James drank down the vial, feeling the pain dissipate from his back with a sigh. He returned the hug and picked up the suitcase. “ **Don’t worry, I will! Again, thank you very much.** ” He waved a final goodbye before stepping back through the portal.

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Once again, this was a fun one for us to write! But at the same time, it hurt because my poor boy was in pain. James, my son, why must bad things happen to you! Granted...some of those bad things were my fault...  
> It is the curse of a writer to be doomed to write about horrible things happening to the characters we love...
> 
> As always, I hope you enjoyed this story!! Kudos and Comments are always appreciated! ^^


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